updated 09:05 pm EST, Fri November 18, 2011

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Google's own Gmail client app for iOS is mediocre compared to its Android counterpart (even after returning to the store after bugs forced Google to pull it just after its debut), but iPhone users do at least have some options. Among them is a relatively new client called Sent ($5) that has been positively reviewed by buyers as well as by The Next Web, which called it "not perfect" but also "the best Gmail client on the iPhone right now."

The speed of the app, which is currently for iPhone only, is its major selling point: being a fully-native app instead of a native wrapper around a mobile web browser as Gmail's own app is. It also offers more Gmail features than Google's own app, including full-email search with operators, all Gmail folder access, photo attachment support and the variety of organizational objects (such as labels, stars, flags and 'important' tags) as well as the vertically-threaded conversation views.

The program, while a strong improvement over Google's own iOS app, is not without flaws. There's no iPad version yet, nor push notifications. Users cannot yet "send as alias" or create a Priority Inbox, and there is no unified inbox yet. Some users have reported occasional crashes while setting up new accounts (Sent supports multiple Gmail accounts) as well. Developer Zhenvi Tan is taking suggestions and comments for future improvements.

Until Google brings feature parity to the iOS version of its Gmail app, alternatives such as Sent and others (iMailG and Safe Gmail as examples) continue to be the best way for Gmail users to take full advantage of Gmail's features on the iPhone. [viaThe Next Web]